Cincinnati Man Sentenced to 148 Months in Prison for Possessing Child Pornography
| U.S. Attorney’s Office October 23, 2012 |
CINCINNATI—Martin Nathan Ross, 59, of Cincinnati was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 148 months in prison for possessing child pornography. Ross’s sentence was enhanced because he has been previously convicted of sex offenses involving minors. He was also sentenced to be under court supervision for the rest of his life.
Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Edward J. Hanko, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cincinnati (FBI); and agencies participating in the Greater Cincinnati Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force announced the sentence handed down today by U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett.
In September 2011, an officer working in an undercover capacity was investigating activities on a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing network. During the investigation, the officer made contact with an individual using the screen name “Olderswohioguy” later identified as Ross. Ross offered to share folders with the undercover officer, which he did. Because these folders were password-protected, Ross had to provide the undercover officer with the password so he could gain access. One folder included numerous images and videos depicting child pornography. The videos in particular depicted children less than 12 years of age involved in various sexual acts.
On September 19, 2011, FBI agents also connected with Ross via the same P2P network and were also provided with a password to access the folders shared by Ross. The images and videos shared and/or possessed by Ross involved children as young as four years of age and none appeared to be older than 13. Ross’s collection included multiple images of pre-pubescent children being raped or sodomized by adult males. One video in particular depicted a child approximately 9 years of age with his hands and feet bound behind his back with a rope while an adult male sexually molested him.
Further investigation into Ross revealed he is a registered sex offender because of a 2003 conviction for unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance. Ross was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of five years on August 27, 2003 and declared a sexually oriented offender. He was released on parole in March 2008 and discharged from supervision on October 29, 2009.
Ross was arrested in November 2011 and has been in custody since his arrest. On July 23, 2012, Ross pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography.
“Such images and videos themselves serve as a constant reminder of the horrors actually inflicted upon the children,” Stewart said. “Those who share images of child pornography ensure that these images and videos will forever be available.”
Agencies participating in the ICAC in addition to the FBI are the U.S. Secret Service; Homeland Security Investigations; U.S. Marshals Service; Hamilton County Sheriff Simon L. Leis, Jr.; Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters; and the police departments in Amberley Village, Blue Ash, Cincinnati, and West Chester.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.